Locals Only: Soccer Clubs that Won’t Sign Foreigners

From major teams like Chivas and Athletic Club to development-focused sides like Altinordu and Paksi, we examine football clubs that employ a homegrown-only policy. 

In 1939, American writer Ernest Vincent Wright published a novel called Gadsby, a sprawling tale of the fictitious city of Branton Hills. It’s an unremarkable survey of early 20th-century quotidian American life, except for one small detail: Wright’s novel spans 50,000 words and does not contain a single instance of the letter “e,” the most common letter in the English language.

Wright enjoyed a playful style of writing called a “lipogram,” which strategically omits certain letters of groups of letters from entire texts. This forces writers to explore esoteric grammatical structures and less-than-common turns of phrase in order for the story to actually be readable. But why on earth would you write an entire novel with this seemingly arbitrary encumbrance? What’s the point of self-handicapping, when you could very well produce a literary masterpiece if only you had access to the full 26 letters of the English alphabet?

Wright explained his motivations thusly: “This story was written, not through any attempt to attain literary merit, but due to a somewhat balky nature, caused by hearing it so constantly claimed that ‘it can’t be done.’”

In the world of soccer, a similar self-employed obstacle made for similar reasons has become a major feature for La Liga side Athletic Club Bilbao.

When Arsenal visited the San Mames Stadium in Bilbao last month, the television commentators were beside themselves at the passion, the atmosphere, the relentlessness of each and every Athletic Bilbao player in what would be their first Champions League game since 2015. What’s more, they reminded us, Athletic only ever selects players of Basque origin.

In the age of global soccer, finding and recruiting foreign players has never been easier. It’s not unheard of to have someone from Brazil playing for a club in England, or to have a Ghanan scoring goals for a team in MLS.

Last season’s Premier League winners, Liverpool, employed players from 15 different countries and four continents. Diverse club teams seem to be a last bastion of diversity and harmony in an increasingly isolationist and jingoistic world. So why on earth would a handful of teams choose to limit themselves to selecting players only from their geographical area? Why would you tie down the metaphorical letter E on your typewriter? Is this type of policy nothing but a giant flex? A middle finger to those who say it can’t, and shouldn’t, be done? Or does it stem from something far more important and far-reaching?

Athletic Club de Bilbao was founded in the late 1800s by a group of Spanish students who had gone to England to complete their university studies, funded by their rich parents. They used the English word “Athletic” as a cultural nod to the ancestral homeland of the game they loved.

Athletic Club with the first ever Copa del Rey in 1903. Image via Wikicommons.

The club’s Basques-only policy actually does have the sort of petty origin story that we all love. In 1911, Athletic won the final of the Copa del Rey with a mixed team of Spaniards and English players. Local rivals Real Sociedad, out of what can only be described as nonpartisan concern for the well-being of the spirit of competition, filed a complaint with the Royal Football Federation, claiming that non-Spanish players were ineligible to compete in the Copa del Rey, and that Athletic ought to be stripped of their title.

While the complaint was ultimately unsuccessful, it was bothersome enough that Athletic Club decided to stick it to Sociedad and the rest of the Spanish soccer landscape, and from that point on would only employ players who were born in the Basque Country, or had grown up playing at academies in the region.

The Basque region, which covers parts of Spain and France, has a complex and, until shockingly recently, violent history. The region speaks its own language, has its own distinct culture, and many inhabitants of the region would like for Basque Country to be a separate political entity. That is to say: they want their independence.

This simmering dissatisfaction with being under the thumb of Spanish dictator Francisco Franco and the government in Madrid came to a boil with the foundation of the “ETA” group in 1959, which for the next half-century waged a brutal guerrilla war against the central government in a somewhat futile attempt to gain political autonomy. More than 1,000 people were killed in a string of clashes and bombings between Basque nationalists and far-right paramilitary troops. Basque players who elected to represent Spain at the international level were subject to scorn and accusations of betrayal by some fervent Basque nationalists.

Photo by RFEF – Pool/Getty Images

Meanwhile, Athletic Club continued on its merry way, winning an impressive 20 Copa del Rey titles since switching to their locals-only transfer policy. They are one of only three teams (joining Real Madrid and Barcelona) to have never been relegated from La Liga, even winning the competition eight times, though none since 1984.

Doing so while adhering to a self-limited policy that isn’t followed by your rival clubs is a testament to Athletic Club’s ability to not only develop young talent, but to convince those young players to stick around for the long term. Some have criticized the Basques-only rule as discriminatory and jingoistic, especially given the decades-long backdrop of civil unrest in the region. However, one fact remains undeniable: Athletic Bilbao must be a pretty damn well-run soccer club.

For any club to have had the level of success they’ve sustained over the past century would be impressive on its own merits, and Bilbao have managed it while picking from a population center the size of Puerto Rico.

But how can Bilbao compete in the 21st-century soccer landscape of petrol-funded super clubs, multi-club ownership groups, and expanded international competitions? The answer, unfortunately, might come as the death knell for a proud tradition.

Over the years, the parameters for determining who exactly qualifies as Basque have been strategically loosened. Initially, the club only selected players from their immediate province, Biscay. Sometime in the 1970s, the club’s policy switched to allow players from the entirety of Basque Country, which encompasses much of Northern Spain, a large swath of the Pyrenees Mountains, as well as Southeastern France. This eventually led to allowing non-Basques who were raised in the region to play for the team. Sometimes spending as little as two years in academy programs has been enough to qualify a player as “sufficiently Basque.”

Athletic’s supporters are immensely proud of their player development, a system they term la cantera (“the quarry”), for its propensity for finding and developing diamonds in the rough. But in modern times, the club’s once-proud policy has morphed into a Byzantine and labyrinthine morass of loopholes and exceptions.

At times, it seems like the club will make any plausible argument to sign a player that could raise their ceiling. This has understandably sparked discussions as to whether players with no connection to Basque Country other than family lineage would be eligible. The club was linked at various times with the likes of Gonzalo Higuain and Diego Forlan, two decidedly South American players with a single Basque grandparent each, but they never signed. The club has also looked into signing players who were born in Basque Country but moved away at a very young age and never returned, arguing that these players have sufficient Basque roots.

Image via Athletic Club Bilbao

A dam of sorts was broken by Athletic’s women’s team in 2019, when they signed German defender Bibiane Schulze from 1.FCC Frankfurt. Schulze’s only hereditary link to Basque Country comes via her maternal great-grandfather Patxo Belaustegigoitia, who played for Athletic a century prior. The club claimed that Schulze was “developed” as a player in the region because she took frequent vacations there as a child, and would generally play soccer games on the beach with her cousins. Despite this thinly veiled ruse, many supporters felt betrayed by the signing, with many wondering publicly what exactly is the point of having such a policy, if it can be broken so easily.

It’s interesting to note that no such policy applies to Athletic’s coaching staff. The club has employed managers from England, Argentina, Austria, Czechia, Serbia, and Brazil during the last century.

But while Bilbao is the most prominent club that employs strict player heritage rules, there are several others around the world with similar restrictions either currently or in their past. Let’s take a look:

Chivas de Guadalajara

Photo by Agustin Cuevas/Getty Images

Mexican club Chivas de Guadalajara remains steadfast in its commitment to only signing Mexican players, in stark contrast with its main rival, Club America. Well, steadfast might not be the ideal word.

The policy originated (ironically, given that the founders of the club were Belgian and French) in the nationalistic fervor of the 1940s, as a response to what many viewed as an excess of foreign influence in Mexican football. This emphasis on the development of homegrown talent has made Chivas a cornerstone of the Mexican national team, with an old saying even claiming that the better Chivas was doing, the better El Tri would do on the international stage. The Guadalajaran club has won the Mexican league 12 times, the CONCACAF Champions Cup twice, and is the only North American team to have reached the final of the Copa Libertadores, which they managed in 2010.

But it’s telling that Chivas’s Wikipedia page has various subsections including “The Dark Era,” “The New Dark Era,” and “Downfall and Mediocrity.” Like Athletic Bilbao, their self-imposed transfer policy feels increasingly anachronistic and anticompetitive. Many supporters, including Real Madrid and Mexico legend Hugo Sanchez, have publicly called on club president Amaury Vergara to end the policy and open Chivas to foreign players. Vergara, either out of a commitment to club values or myopic pridefulness (depending on your charitability), has refused to budge outright, although there has appeared to be some flexibility in their policy.

@diego.ale21 #chivas #parati #cadecowell #rebañosagrado #ligamx #ligabbvamx #superchivas @Chivas ♬ sonido original – diego castro L

The signing of American international Cade Cowell sparked debate and outrage among Chivas fans in 2024. Cowell was born and raised in Central California, but was able to get Mexican citizenship through his mother. She was also born and raised in California, but her parents were immigrants from Mexico. In 2023, Cowell claimed that he didn’t feel much of a connection with Mexico and didn’t really speak that much Spanish, but Chivas opted to sign him the next year anyway. While technically a dual national, Cowell has appeared for the United States men’s national team, scoring in a 2023 Gold Cup match against Trinidad and Tobago.

Many fans have embraced Cowell and his American background, leading to some amusing TikToks, however others have felt that his signing has given away the game, so to speak.

Mexican journalist Miguel Angel Arizpe, a longtime critic of Chivas’ policy, pointed out the irony of the Cowell signing in what just might be the best piece of soccer writing I’ve ever laid eyes on: “Let’s not fool ourselves. Cowell received dual citizenship because his mother’s cousin’s uncle’s great-grandmother’s granddaughter ate at Taco Bell. That doesn’t make him a player that characterizes the Chivas spirit.”

As long as Vergara remains president of the club, it’s unlikely that the policy will change. However, if Chivas’s long slide into mediocrity becomes a more permanent condition, the club will likely have no choice.

Altinordu FK

Turkish third division club Altinordu also focuses on youth development and has a policy of only signing Turkish players. Nicknamed The Golden Army, Altinordu was founded in 1923, the same year as the modern Turkish state. This seems to be a source of great pride for the club, whose stadium is plastered with images of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and the other founding fathers of Türkiye.

The “Turkish Only” policy seems to be a pet project of club president Seyit Mehmet Özkan, who, upon his purchase of the club in 2012, set a goal of reaching the Turkish Super League by 2020, and by 2023, which coincided with Türkiye’s Centennial, to qualify for European competition. In media interviews, Özkan and various other club administrators repeatedly reference Athletic Bilbao as an inspiration for the project.

Altinordu missed out on promotion to the top flight in 2021 in a narrow playoff defeat to Altay, and slid down to the third division after a relegation in 2024-25.

Paksi FC

Successful Hungarian club Paksi FC, also known as Atomcsapat or “Nuclear Team” due to the nearby location of Hungary’s only nuclear power plant, employ a Hungarians-only policy. They qualified for the Europa League in 2011, and finished third in the Hungarian first division last year. Signing only native players seems an easier task in smaller leagues that don’t have access to the same amount of capital as, say, La Liga or the Turkish Super League.

This type of hyper-Hungarian nationalism gives some pause, however, as strongman President Victor Orban is reportedly obsessed with soccer. He recently passed a lucrative tax exemption for donations to the big Hungarian clubs such as Puskas and Ferencvaros, and is keen to use investment in the Hungarian league as a means of consolidating power.

Rangers FC

Photo by Rusty Cheyne/Allsport/Getty Images/Hulton Archive

From the 1920s all the way until 1989, Scottish club Rangers refused to sign Catholic players. Rangers always represented the Protestant side of Glasgow, while Celtic FC was the club of Irish Catholic immigrants, dating back to the club’s inception.

This policy was not known about publicly until striker Ralph Brand blew the whistle to The News of the World upon leaving the club for Manchester City in 1965. Anti-Catholic sentiment was so strong at Rangers that winger Graham Fyfe claims he was forced out of the club in 1980 after he married a Catholic woman.

This policy ended in 1989 when manager Graeme Souness opted to sign ex-Celtic forward Maurice Johnston. Rangers fans reacted, let’s say, not great. Some of them burned their season tickets and jerseys. The Rangers kitman, conducting his own private crusade against Catholics, reportedly refused to lay out Johnston’s gear before each match.

Could any MLS Club Emulate This?

On its face, the answer to this question is a hard no. With such an emphasis on international roster slots and trawling Latin America for emerging talents, any daring MLS club would certainly be shooting itself in the foot by adhering to a homegrown-only policy.

As the United States grapples with a return to isolationist policies, any “Americans-only” restriction would come across as politically insensitive, not to mention that it would be hard for such a team to be any good. I’m reminded of the attempt by the North American Soccer League in 1983 to field the USMNT as a club team called “Team America” (this one wasn’t comprised of puppets) based in Washington, D.C. They finished dead last in the league that year.

But what about regional teams? The only way I can see this working is if one of the Cascadia teams goes full Athletic Bilbao and only selects players born or developed in the Northwest of the United States or British Columbia in Canada. Cascadian separatism is not completely unlike the Basque variety, although it doesn’t generally rise to the level of political violence. You can almost picture the Seattle Sounders, already a model franchise for player development, doubling down on their regional support and becoming the de facto team for Cascadian players.

The Future

It’s anyone’s guess what will happen to homegrown policies in the future. As the world globalizes even further, clubs like Chivas and Athletic are swimming against the current, clinging to a relic of a bygone era. Athletic have adapted, sure, but how many times can you split the baby before it becomes unrecognizable?

That said, we’re always desperate for the players on the pitch to reflect the passion and the dedication of fans. A lot of players are out there merely for the lucrative paycheck, for the trappings of the professional football life. But fans of these clubs can be sure: their players are fighting for something bigger than themselves.